USA > New Jersey > A history of Baptists in New Jersey > Part 2
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I Three pillars of the social state; sovereignty; the law of the country; the office of a judge.
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INTRODUCTION
II Three duties incumbent on each of these three, instruction; information and record; regulations for the good of the community; justice, privilege and protection to all.
III Three elements of law; knowledge; natural right; consci- entiousness.
IV Three things which a judge ought always to study: equity, habitually; mercy, conscientiously; knowledge, profoundly and accurately.
V Three things necessary in a judge: To be earnest in his zeal for the truth; to inquire diligently to find out the truth from others; to be subtle in examining in any cause brought into his court; to discover deceit, in order that his decision may be just and conscientious.
VI Three guardians of law: a learned judge; a faithful witness; a conscientious decision.
VII Three ties of civil society; just liberty of ingress and of egress; common rights; just laws.
VIII Three things bring a state or community to ruin. Exor- bitant privileges; perversion of justice; an unconcern.
IX Three bonds of society: sameness of rights; sameness of occupancy; sameness of constitutional law.
X Three of a common rank against whom a weapon is not to be unsheathed: a man, who is unarmed; a man before he has a beard; a woman.
XI Every Welshman has by birth three native rights: In the term of Welshman a Welsh woman is included; The cultivation of a tenure of five acres of land in his own right; the use of defensive arms and signs (armorial insignia); the right of voting; which a male attains when he has a beard; and a female when she marries.
XII There are three prohibitions of the unsheathing of offensive weapon or of holding them in the hand: In an assembly of worship in a court of the country and of the Lord; the arms of a guest where he remains.
XIII Three things appertain to every man personally: in- tance; right; kind.
XIV Three excellencies of the law: to prevent oppression; to pun- ish evil deeds; to secure a just retribution for what is unlawfully done.
XV Three kinds of justice in law: justice as it depends on truth; on knowledge; on conscience; truth is the root of judgment; conscience is the root of discrimination; knowledge is the root of conduct to its conclusion.
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INTRODUCTION
XVI Three things that make a man worthy of being chief of a clan: That if he speak to a relation, he is listened to; that he will con- tend with a relation and be feared by him; and that he is offered security, it will be accepted.
XVII Three protections are general: a court of law; a place of worship; a plow or team at work.
XVIII Three things that must be listened to by a court or judge: a complaint; a petition; a reply.
XIX There are three standing forms as to a court: to appoint a proper day for its commencement; the pleading; the judgment; that the place be well known within sight of country and clan; the assembling peacefully and quietly and that there be no naked weapon against any who go to court.
XX Three that are silent in a general assembly; The Lord of the soil or king; for he is to listen to what is said and when he has heard all, he may speak, what he may deem necessary, as the law and the decision the law require; the Judge who is not to speak till he declares his judg- ment as to that which has been proved and declared to the jury; one who is surety for another and not bound to reply, but the Judge or Jury.
A question occurs. Did not Blackstone draw his ideas of justice and of truth and equality from these Triads? They provide that no unsheathed weapon shall be allowed in a place of worship, nor in a court. That a teacher ought to be in each family. That neither King, Lord, Judge and surety be allowed to meddle in the debates of the assembly; that a homestead of five acres and a married woman's right to vote were guaranteed. But one persecution has ever been known in Wales, except one in a foray of Roman Catholics, who were immedi- ately expelled from the land, nor has there been known a case of idol worship.
Happily America proved a refuge where freedom was safe. Our denominational life was nurtured by Welsh pastors. Only in the United States of America are there constitutional guarantees of free worship, and of speech. Baptists and Quakers paid the penalty of having an open Bible. Outside of the three colonies, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, even in America, there was no security for them. In Maryland there was a limited freedom. In 1639, the Roman Catholic faith was made the creed of the colony. But in ten years, the law was amended guaranteeing liberty of worship to all who worshipped Jesus Christ, shutting out Unitarians, and infidels and all who denied to Virgin Mary her Romish functions. After the Amer- ican Revolution, the entire nation was made by the adoption of the Constitution, a home for every belief possible to men.
CHAPTER I.
MIDDLETOWN AND HOLMDEL CHURCHES 1667-8
Why associate these Churches as one? Because the body now known as Middletown Church, derives its name from the village in which it is. But Middletown Church originally included a vast ter- ritory, while the present Church is wholly local. Further, nearly all of the constituents of the Church settled at Baptisttown, (Holmdel)- Stouts, Holmes, Bownes, Grover, Lawrence. Ashton, the first pastor, settled West of Holmdel. Coxes, Cheesmans and Mounts located at Upper Freehold, making Holmdel the center of the Church. The first house of worship and parsonage were at Holmdel, where the pastors lived until 1826. The second house of worship and par- sonage were also built there. The "yearly meetings," originally held between Middletown and Piscataway, were held only at Holmdel and Upper Freehold; never at Middletown village, it' being distant from Baptist families. At Middletown village a town hall was built and used for worship until 1732, when Baptists built a church edifice. Rev. John Burrows gave a lot on which to build a house of worship. Pastor Ashton was the first Baptist minister in New Jersey and preached the first sermon at the house of John Stout, Sr., near Bap- tisttown (Holmdel). His wife, Penelope Stout, was buried in a family cemetery on her husband's farm. It has been long since lost in a field.
The absolute oneness of these churches prior to 1836 is shown in their record. That at Middletown village is essentially involved in that at Holmdel. Both Cohansie through Obadiah Holmes, Jr., and first Hopewell through John Stout, Jr., and his brother James originated in Baptisttown (Holmdel). Middletown, the earliest Baptist church south of Rhode Island was constituted in 1667-8. Some, who claimed to know, insisted that in 1664-5 was its beginning. Benedict intimates its organization in 1667. Morgan Edwards alluding to the incorporation correspondence, with lower Dublin in 1688, speaks of an impression then prevalent-that "the church had been in order since 1667." The supposition of its origin in 1688, came from the advice of the Middletown Church to Middletown in 1688, "that they do incorporate." The church was not incorporated until 1793. Pastor Stout investigated the matter in 1837, and was then told by very old people, lineal descend- ants of constituents, "that after settling, Baptists met, had preaching, observed the ordinances, brought up their children in the faith" and
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NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
in the worship of God and knew from tradition, that while a short time elapsed before a church was organized the church had been in regular order if not before 1665, soon after. Finally, he decided, that it was safe to date its origin as early as 1668. Accordingly in 1872, Pastor Stout changed the date of the organization of the church in the minutes of the Trenton Association from 1688 to 1668. Before making the change Mr. Stout conferred with pastors of branches of the church, who had made investigations and they agreed with him in making the change.
Benedict speaks of John Browne as the first pastor of the church. But there was not a John Browne among the early Baptists. James Ashton, a constituent, was the first pastor. It is significant of these Baptist colonists, that they included an ordained Baptist minister as one of them. Of these thirty-six patentees, eighteen were Baptists. The wives of some others were Baptists. They were conscientious God-fearing persons. From the time of their settlement to 1668, was almost twenty-five years. Is it reasonable that such people fleeing from persecution, would live like heathen, all of these years, allowing their children to grow up Godless, having included a Baptist min- ister to be their pastor ? Other denominations were among the colonists: Episcopalians, who founded a church; Presbyterians, who owned the only cemetery in the place, in which Abel Morgan was buried. These were people of "means" and of social position; yet Baptists absorbed them, and their ownership of lands is the only trace of them that remains. Would it have been so, had the Baptists left the field to them for twenty-four years? What and where would these children have been? Beside, these Baptists planted stations afar off and nearby; would they have done this without a home church? One of the Holmes family, has made a genealogical record of the family and informs the writer that she has evidence that Obadiah Holmes, Sr., was present at the organization of the church at Middletown. He died in 1682, six years before 1688. His sons, Jonathan, the eldest, and Obadiah, the youngest, were constituents of the church. Obadiah, Jr., often visited the old home in Rhode Island, returning about 1683-5 to Holmdel, he moved to Cohansie, Salem county. He was the first Baptist minister there, gathered the Baptists in meetings and really originated the Baptist church. His being a constituent in Middletown in 1688 is improbable, being in Salem county and a Judge of the Courts there. Obadiah Holmes, Jr., for his birth and christening in a Congregational church in Salem, Mass., and of his successful labors in Cohansie .* Of the Holmes family, John, the second son, said to be *See record of Cohansie Church.
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the first Baptist resident in Philadelphia, going there in 1756 was a man of wealth, a judge in the city courts. Obadiah, Jr., the youngest, was also a Judge in Salem county and Jonathan, of Holmdel, the eldest son, was a member of the Governor's Council the Colonial Legisla- ture. Many other Baptists in New Jersey held high places in civil and political life, illustrating the liberal policy of the Colonial govern- ment and the competency of our Baptist ancestry for place and eminence.
It has been said that the Apostles of our Lord were poor and ignor- ant men, as if our Lord had no more sense than to belittle himself and his cause by choosing weakness and ignorance to influence men to righteousness, rather than strength and intelligence. Men who were to associate with the highest culture and to stand before kings. A like falsehood is said of Baptists, who laid the foundations on which we build. Our Baptist forefathers were the foremost men of their times. Note this contrast: A majority of Baptists founded a colony in Monmouth county. Their patent had this pledge: "Unto any and all persons, who shall plant or inhabit any of the lands aforesaid; they shall have free liberty of conscience, without any molestation or disturbance, whatsoever, in their worship." This was in 1664 or 5.
Proprietors for a Congregational colony got a charter for the set- tlement of Newark, in New Jersey, in 1666 and provided: "None should be admitted freemen or free Burgesses, save such as were members of one or other of the Congregational churches; and they determined as a fundamental agreement and order, that any who might differ in religious opinion from them and who would not keep their views to themselves should be compelled to leave the place." Can there be a wider contrast between a Baptist and a Pedo Baptist? Mr. Lawrence, one of the pat- entees of Monmouth county, was not himself a Baptist church member, but his wife was a Baptist. This gave us a majority of the patentees. Some of these were "Friends" (Quakers) locating in Shrewsbury. They fully agreed in this guarantee. The names of the eighteen Baptists were, excepting Mr. Lawrence :- Richard Stout, father; John or Jona- than Stout, son; Jonathan Holmes, the oldest, brother to Obadiah Holmes, Jr., the youngest; James Grover, father; James Grover, Jr., son; Jonathan Bowne, father; John Bowne, son; John Cox; Rev. James Ashton, John Wilson, John Buchan, Walter Hall, William Compton, Thomas Whitlock, William Layton, William Cheeseman, George Mount.
Of these, the youngest Stout emigrated to Hopewell early in 1700 and the name is lost from Holmdel. Rev. D. B. Stout, of Middle- town village was a descendant of Richard Stout. The descendants of
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NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
the Holmes live on their ancestral estate, except Obidiah, who remain- ed in South Jersey in the vicinities of Cohansie. The Bownes inter- married with the Crawfords and their name is lost. To a large extent the lands of these adjoined. The Cheesemans, Coxes and Mounts set- tled at Upper Freehold and Jacobstown. Their names are among the constituents of Hightstown. Upper Freehold was an original Baptist community, having with the exception of Holmdel and Cohansie, the earliest Baptist house of worship in the colony. The son of Rev. James Ashton, the first pastor of the old church moved to Upper Freehold in an early day and dying a bachelor, his name is lost. He bequeathed property to the church. On account of the Brays naming their set- tlement in Hunterdon county Baptisttown, Holmdel, was adopted for the old Baptisttown as a memorial name.
The parsonage being at Holmdel, pastors went from there to their scattered flock and grouping them into mutuality, laid the founda- tions of many Baptist churches. From the first these Baptists did not limit themselves. Houses of worship were built in distant parts and periodic appointments were made, to which the people would travel thirty miles on foot or on horseback along "bridle paths" taking their children with them. This in part explains why long sermons came into fashion. Those who made these sacrifices were not content with a "taste" of the word, nor with platitudes. They wanted substance and plenty of "sound doctrine;" something to think of for a month or months and not a "milk and water" diet. Upper Freehold became the center, whence Middletown pastors radiated from the ocean to the Dela- ware river and to far South of Trenton, covering a vast territory. There is scarcely a more marked instance of the mockery of a name, than that which gives to the church in the Middletown village, the memories, constituency and work of the original Middletown church. If any one church is entitled to have been that body it is Holmdel. Middletown village was one of its lesser centers. Up to 1836, a majority of the Baptisms were administered at Holmdel, where most of the members could be present. For seventy years, the history of the church is obscure as respects its pastors; James Ashton, John Burrows, John Okison, are names coming to us by their con- nection with important events in its history. How long Mr. Ashton was pastor is not known. John Burrows was pastor about eighteen years; Mr. Okison followed. Mr. Eaglesfield came next and died in the third year of his charge.
The following scrap was given to the writer before 1850, by the Rev. D. B. Stout, pastor at Middletown: "At the yearly meeting, May 24th, 1712, agreed to submit to the judgment of our friends come
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MIDDLETOWN AND HOLMDEL
from Philadelphia and whether the proceedings against John Okison hath been regular, according to the merits of the case or not. As also to give their opinion, what may be proper to be done, as to his continuing to teach. If they find the proceedings against him irregular and that, as to all other differences which relates to the church, shall forever be buried. And also, what shall be laid before them and determined by them, it is mutually agreed to be governed by."
This paper indicates in part the trouble of 1712 and expresses the spirit of the church, to bury forever all allusion to the action about Mr. Okison. The Council advised the church to bury all former disputes and to erase all record of them. The church did so. The early leaves of the minute book were torn out and we have lost the early records of the church.
The writer has another paper, taken from the minutes of the Court. An index of the times and of the laws which hindered and hurt Baptists :- "Court of Sessions begun and held at Shrewsbury for the county of Monmouth on the third Tuesday in September, Anno Dom. 1707. Whereas Mr. John Bray, minister of the Baptists of the county of Monmouth made application to the Court of Sessions, held last March, that he might be permitted to qualify himself as the law di- rects in the behalf and the Court then ordered the further consideration thereof should be referred and now said John Bray appearing in open sessions, being presented by several of said congregation, viz: Lawrence, John Garret Wall, Jacob Troax, Jr., James Bolen, in behalf of themselves and the rest of their brethren, and accordingly the said John Bray had qualified himself as the law in the case directs, viz .: he did take the oath made in a statute, made in the first year of their Majesties reign, entitl- ed an act for removing and preventing all disputes concerning the as- sembly of that Parliament and did make and subscribe the declaration mentioned in the statute made in the thirtieth year of the reign of King Charles, II, entitled an act to prevent Papists from sitting in either houses of Parliament and also did declare his approbation of and did subscribe the articles of religion mentioned in the statute made in the thirtieth year of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, except the 34, 35, 36 and those words of the 20th article, viz .: the church hath full power to decree rites and ceremonies and authority in matters of faith and that part of the 27th article concerning infant baptism, all of which are en- tered on record. According to the direction of another act of Parliament entitled, an act for exempting her Majesties Protestant subjects, dis- senting from the church of England from the penalty of certain laws."
This extract of the doings of the court indicates that in the colonies religion was legal and illegal. Preachers must appear in Court and have
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NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
its authority to exercise their office. Quite different from Baptist ideas of one's liberties. Another question is settled, as to when John Bray became a minister of the Gospel and who licensed him. Five houses of worship were built within the bounds of the old church up to 1737, and two parsonages at Holmdel; one, a house of worship and a parsonage, soon after the settlement. It fronted on the road from Holmdel to Colt's Neck, about two hundred yards distant from the parsonage, built in 1825. The third was built by John Bray in 1705, and was his gift with five acres of land to the church. Two were built in Upper Freehold, "The Yellow Meeting House" and another twelve miles distant from the first: The fifth in Middletown village in 1732. Then the "Town Hall" that had been a place of worship for Baptists was deserted. These were maintained as Baptist nuclei by pastors of Middletown church, to which they were more conven- iently located, in the parsonages at Holmdel, than they could be elsewhere. This arrangement continued until churches were organized in these distant localities and till Mr. Bennett settled in 1792, who lived on his farm in Marlboro.
Abel Morgan lived on his farm opposite to Red Bank and Mr. Ash- ton on his farm, near Matawan. Mr Roberts lived in the parsonage at Holmdel till 1826 when he bought a farm and moved on it. Abel Morgan may have lived in the first parsonage. Other pastors lived at Holmdel, the center of the church. Instead of organizing the second Middletown church (now Holmdel) in 1836; had the church divided, Holmdel would have retained its place in age and dignity. Both of these bodies are designated in the church records as branches of the original church. That at Baptisttown, known as the "Upper Meeting- house." and the congregation, as "The Upper Congregation;" and that of Middletown Village, as the "Lower Meeting-house," and the congre- gation, as "The Lower Congregation." These congregations were ab- solutely one; sharing equally in the responsibilities and privileges of the Church. At Baptisttown there was a very certain proportion of social and financial strength, as well as of spiritual power. Reference to some of these men, the founders of our religious freedom, is necessary to the completeness of this sketch.
The business of the Church seems to have been transacted as now in country Churches, "at the meeting before communion," indiscrim- inately at either house.
We read in June, 1713, "at our yearly meeting in Middletown." In August, 1732, "appointed a quarterly meeting in Middletown." Aug- ust, 1753, the entry is "Middletown, at the Upper Meeting-house;" and in the next month, "at the above said meeting-house." In 1736,
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probably to avoid confusion, it was decided to hold a "yearly meeting for business in the old Meeting-house, near John Bray's."
We find no reference to a change of this order. Yet fifty years later, in 1788, it appears that a change had been made; the Commun- ion services before that date having been held for six months consecu- tively in each place.
Then, however, it was ordered "that the meetings should be in rotation in their seasons at each meeting house." This arrangement continued until the division of the church in 1836.
The records of these early days, now exciting a smile by their quaintness of speech or style; and now, as the tenderness and strength of Christian character crops out, stirring the deepest sensibilities of the soul, indicate the type of men and women-their stern integrity, their constancy, their conscientious piety, their sense of propriety and fitness in the things of the Lord's house. They illumine their times, agitated by the same questions and matters of concernment as ripple ours- handled, however, with a decision and positiveness that would sadly hurt the "poor" feelings of some who prate much of "liberty."
They had convictions which they cared to maintain. In March, 1787, a member asked a letter of dismissal to join a Seventh Day Bap- tist Church, and the record adds significantly, "But there was no an- swer given."
A member, in 1788, became a "Universalist," and it was ordered that he be "ex-communicated on Sunday, in public at Bray's meeting- house." It is recorded in 1790, that a brother took his letter from Upper Freehold and joined Middletown church, because the "former totally omitted the laying on of hands after baptism and before receiving into the Church, in full communion." The brethren seem to have held them- selves in pledge for one another, as instanced in the record of January, 1787, where it is said: "All the members signed a letter of dismission."
Care for the decencies of the Lord's house was characteristic of the Church. In 1786, it was moved "that the suit of clothing belonging to the said Church for the use of the minister to perform the ordinance of Baptism in, was almost worn out; and not being decent for said purposes any longer, ordered the purchase of firsting for a new suit." Cleanli- ness of the sanctuary as well as decency in the official apparel of the sanctuary as well as decency in the official apparel of the minister was provided for; and the duties of the sexton differed somewhat from now. In 1792, £1 12s. was paid Deborah Van Cleaf, for taking care of the house and sanding the same."
The pews of the "Upper House," at least, seem by the authority of Church to have been held in individual right. John Stillwell, the Church
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NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
Clerk, reported to the Church that Hope Burrows, the widow and ex- ecutrix of John Burrows, deceased, gave him their pew in "The Upper Meeting-house;" whereupon, the "Church agreed that he have the same pew under the said gift, with doing some repairs on the window at the end of said seat."
The frequent resignation of the deacons when incapacitated for active duty, leads to the conclusion that they esteemed the office more one of work, than of honor and for life.
In 1805, the use of their meeting houses was forbidden "for any minister."
These people were certainly not seriously befogged in their ideas of church duties; rights and decencies; nor of the uses of the office in the house of God; nor of the irresponsibility for the doctrine that might be preached from their pulpits; nor of the limits and liberties of Chris- tian duty and privilege.
This entry is in the register: "Dec., 1791, Crawford's Jack, de- parted this life." That no contempt of Africa's sons is designed, an- other entry in 1796, by the same hand evidences: "Died-Samuel, a black man, an example of real piety. He hath been a member of this church for near forty years, without ever a complaint or the least accusation against him from any person in the smallest degree." A memorial fitting to be written on the same page with that of Abel Morgan, found in the same book.
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